Thursday, July 16, 2009

If you haven't yet heard, bloggers Jeremy Parzen of Do Bianchi and Tracie B. of My Life Italian are getting married. It's such a sweet story, they are such a great couple, and the whole thing might never have happened if not for their blogs. I've never met Tracie B., but I had dinner with Jeremy in San Diego and he's a true gentleman and a scholar. Congratulations to both of you!

In my own little way I honored Jeremy and Tracie last night by eating Texas-style BBQ. I went to Fette Sau, the Texas-stye BBQ joint in a former garage in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You order meat by weight and the guy behind the meat display case assembles it for you on a tray with wax paper. Just like Texas - check out this Do Bianchi BBQ post for reference. Paper plates, a few rolls, some pickles, and potato salad completed the meal.

The charred hunks in the foreground are pork belly.

We went with 3/4 pound of pork spare ribs, a half pound of brisket, and a third pound of pork belly, the cut that is basically ubiquitous now in NYC restaurants. Although I hear they're moving to lamb belly and other bellies, but I'm not really on top of these things. BBQ pork belly...that's like taking a whole slab of bacon and BBQing it. Pretty intense. And it was intensely pork-tastic, the very essence of porkiness. I thought the brisket was too dry though, probably smoked at too high a temperature. The ribs were very tasty, but also not as tender as they might have been. The sides were great and we had great beer too - something brewed in Red Hook, Brooklyn exclusively for Fette Sau. They have an epic whiskey list, and we closed out the meal with a nip of Michter's Rye, my favorite of the non-fancy, non-aged straight rye whiskies. We left the restaurant and went directly to my cardiologists office where we enjoyed late a evening angioplasty.

Congratulations again to you Jeremy and Tracie, may you have a long, healthy, and happy life together. With lots of great BBQ and wine.

7 comments:

BrooklynGuy, thank you so much for the well wishes! They mean so much and thank you so much for bloggy camaraderie and support! You're another person in my life whom I wouldn't have met if not through blogging... Tracie B and I are both so glad to be part of this bloggy blog community. Thank you, truly. The well wishes and kind words mean so much.

Post scriptum: the bbq in your post sounds excellent and authentic. You'll have to come down to Texas to try Uncle Tim's brisket. It's AMAZING... we're going to do a step-by-step blog post later this year on how to make east Texas style gumbo, too. Thanks again BrooklynGuy! Blog on, brother, blog on!

hey cliff - never been to hill country so i can't compare. but fette sau didn't seem like a pickup joint. people seemed like they were late 20's early 30's and the scene was friendly and relaxed. it was about a convivial place to eat a lot of BBQ.

My band used to rehearse in a rehearsal studio across the street from Hill Country in Chelsea. One time we went in there with our guitars to get something to eat and they thought we were "the band." It was like a scene from the Blues Brothers. The bbq there — I know can say with some authority — was NOT authentic. Anyway, let's just say that I came to the REAL Hill Country for the real thing... ;-)

Thanks again BrooklynGuy. Please come visit us in Texas and we'll get Uncle Tim and Melvin to smoke some brisket! Thanks, man. Means a lot.